Author Feature: Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen has been writing about Florida since his father gave him a typewriter at the age of 6. His books are light, sassy, humorous mystery/suspense novels.

Hiaasen’s books come in two categories. He has written award winning Young Adult novels and adult novels. All are set in Florida. ‘Skinny Dip’ opens with a husband throwing his wife overboard on a cruise ship. She survives, and instead of reporting the crime to the police, she decides to get her own revenge. The book is full of good humour but also alot of crude language and adult content.

Puzzled by the behaviour of an elusive barefoot boy, Roy who is the new kid in town, gets involved in a plot to stop greedy developers from harming the burrowing owls on a construction site. This is the kind of story Hiaasen tells well. You keep turning the pages and you delight in seeing the bully finally get what he deserves. Hiaasen has no adult content or language in his Young Adult books and they are well written. ‘Hoot’ won the Newberry Honour Award. Many of his stories have been adapted for movies or TV. Two other hysterical mystery YA novels are ‘Flush’ and ‘Scat’.

Hiaasen writes a column for the Miami Herald where he has made as many enemies as friends. He supports environmental causes and has won many honours for his investigative reporting. Many of his novels have been made into films and his book topics include rants against big business. He roots for the underdog and his novels satisfy because the good guys win. Both of these books were delightful beach or travel reads. They kept me turning pages on a recent trip, or perhaps, instead of saying ‘page turner’, it should now be called a ‘button pusher’ since I read them on my Kindle. 🙂